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1996-97 Hale Bopp comet controversy: A Chronology

VICTORIA, B.C. - The 1996-97 Hale-Bopp comet controversy began after
Chuck Shramek, an amateur astronomer from Houston, called Art Bell's
program on November 14 1996 to report that he had a photograph showing
a large object behind the Hale Bopp comet. This led to several radio
shows on the issue and included different guests.

Dr. Courtney Brown, Director of the Farsight Institute,
who had previously been on the Art Bell show to discuss spirituality
and extraterrestrial life, including the issue of life on Mars, offered
remote viewing data on Bell's radio talk show shortly after Chuck
Shramek came forward with his photo. Brown spoke about data obtained by
his remote viewers that seemed to support photographic evidence
obtained by Shramek. He said that the data suggested that it was a
large object that could be complex, artificial, and technological in
nature and that it was located behind Comet Hale-Bopp. To target the
Hale Bopp companion, Brown said that his remote viewers used a verbal
cue and did not use any photographs as a target. Brown claimed that the
data was highly interesting and suggestive, but he never claimed that
the data was 100% accurate.

Hale Bopp's companion photos controversy

Later, when Bell and his co-host Whitley Strieber found out that
Brown's web master had received photos showing a companion to the
Hale-Bopp comet, they urged them to come on his show to discuss it. The
web master claimed to have received them from an astronomer at a major
university who wanted to stay anonymous and whom she knew and with whom
she spoke on the telephone. Brown and the Institute’s web master spoke
about the images on the Art Bell show, and the web master claimed that
her source told her that he would have a news conference announcing the
images in one to two weeks. The news conference never took place, and
Brown and the Institute’s web master appeared discredited in the
public’s eye. After notifying Brown on January 14th 1997 and against
Brown’s urgings, Bell released Brown's photo on the Internet on January
15, 1997. This further evolved into a major scandal shortly after when
Bell was contacted by Oliver Hainut and David J. Tholen, both
professors from the University of Hawaii. They said that the posted
photo that Brown's web master received was an altered copy of one of
their recent comet photos, and they provided a comparison as evidence.
There has never been an independent corroboration of this claim, and
some postings of a technical nature have appeared on the Internet
disputing this claim. Since the original version photos obtained by The
Farsight Institute have never been released, this issue has never been
resolved.

Brown's last appearance on Art Bell

On January 16th, 1997, Brown went on the Art Bell show for the last
time where he said he would not reveal the name of the astronomer who
had given his web master the original film. He said the web master had
committed herself not to reveal the astronomer's identity and only she
knew the astronomer's name. He also said that it’s possible that this
professor had good intentions but was tricked by someone else. He did
not want to jeopardize the astronomer’s reputation and their agreement
of confidentiality. He also raised the possibility of a libel suit if
his webmaster disclosed the professor’s name since it would jeopardize
that professor’s reputation now that the photos were being disputed as
hoaxes. Brown argued that it was a mistake to have talked about
something that was not a product of the Institute and his efforts to
bring the focus back to remote viewing failed. [edit] Brown's public
statement In a January 20, 1997 public statement, Brown suggested that
the comet photos sent to him were part of a "wide-scale and highly
organized disinformation campaign" with "resources that extend beyond
those of any university or professor," and that The Farsight Institute
had walked into a trap by talking about the photo. "Disinformation
campaigns," says Brown, "are not unusual in the area of
extraterrestrial life." This major scandal involving the astronomical
photos destroyed any significant public credibility either Brown or The
Farsight Institute may have had previously about the Hale Bopp comet
controversy. January 16, 1997 was the last time Brown was invited to
appear on the Art Bell radio show. The Hale Bopp story continued in
full force on the Art Bell show, with the so-called Hale Bopp
"Companion" being popularly referenced as "Hail Mary."

Ed Dames on Art Bell

Art Bell invited former top secret military remote viewer Ed Dames
on his show more than once between January 1997 and March 1997. Dames
talked about his company's remote viewing data that showed that the
comet's companion carried a plant pathogen targeting Africa that will
kill all plant life. He said that his remote viewing data showed that
this was engineered by aliens who wanted to eliminate humans from the
earth. He explained that all plants, including all food, will
eventually be destroyed. That people will have nothing left to eat as
this will cause a massive starvation worldwide.

A disinformation campaign?

On March 30, 1997, an anonymous posting that was later shared over
the internet, went up on The Farsight Institute's bulletin board. It
claimed to come from a spy who identified himself as "The Watcher" and
who worked for an unidentified agency. He wrote that there was a
campaign to discredit remote viewing because intelligence officials
were not comfortable that it became declassified. This declassification
took place in the mid 1990's, shortly before whistleblower Dr. David
Morehouse, a former CIA & military remote viewer, published his
book that also details a disinformation campaign against his
credibility. The Watcher's posting also said: "What Dames does not
know, but I am telling him now by writing this, is that several of the
people who view for him are feeding him false information purposely.
His predictions are nothing but fairy tales." Indeed, Dames'
predictions never came true but there was no way of verifying the
source of the anonymous posting. [edit] The Heaven's Gate cult suicide
On March 27 1997, a secretive cult group called Heaven's Gate chose the
appearance of the comet as a signal for their mass cult-suicide in San
Diego. They claimed they were leaving their earthly bodies to travel to
the space ship following the comet. It was speculated that members of
the Heaven's Gate group committed mass suicide based on rumors Bell
aired, but others discounted this, noting that the Heaven's Gate
website stated that "Whether Hale-Bopp has a 'companion' or not is
irrelevant from our perspective."

[1] (http://www.csicop.org/si/9707/art-bell.html)
Whitley Strieber, Art Bell's co-host, later went on the Today Show with
former astronaut Edgar Mitchell in regards to the cult suicide, to
explain how important it is that the subject of extraterrestrial life
be addressed by science before deciding what is going on.